A whole season of Lost later, I am finally getting back to our blog. I guess life has taken a few minor, but unexpected turns in the last couple of months, and I haven't gotten around to posting. The spring semester got busy because I was wrapped up in my International Water Law paper, and I can now say that after spending hours and hours on it, I think I have finally found my niche in the legal word--water law dealing with freshwater resource and irrigation. David, on the other hand, has been busy at work, entertaining dozens of guests to the warehouse from San Antonio, Dallas, etc.

And then .... after spending months agonizing over how I was going to spend my summer, just days before finals ended, I tracked down an amazing job opportunity. Unfortunately, it's in Albuquerque, meaning I had to pack up for the summer (including Jake and Lucky, of course), and leave for New Mexico. So David and I will have a long distance marriage for 3 months, and in David's words: "my life is a country song...my wife took my truck and the horses...she left me the dogs." I might have even brought the dogs with me too, but I thought bringing the canine count to 6 at my parents' house (7 when Melissa comes and brings Emily for the weekend) might be a little too much...and David needs some company anyway.

David and I did get to spend some time camping this Spring, which was quite an ordeal with 3 dogs and 2 horses, but we had a lot of fun. We made the trek out to Caprock Canyon the day after the only day it snowed in West Texas. The snow was enough to keep everyone else away, but not us, so we hunkered down under about 6 layers of blankets, and enjoyed a very quite and peaceful camping trip, including a trail ride.

"THE RIG"

Mmm, mmm... bean soup helped keep us warm

The Boys

This is the closest we got to getting everyone in one picture

Lucky is a biologist at heart and makes sure he gets samples of all the vegetation to conduct his own research

Since I am trying to catch up on my blogging tonight, I will also include our movie reviews...I honestly think we have only gone to the theater once this whole semester...maybe there were more, but the only one I can recall is Angels and Demons. After we both really enjoyed the book, I think our review can be summed up by saying that I don't think Ron Howard actually read the book himself. It was a little disappointing.

I even have a City of the Month for June: Edgewood New Mexico...

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"So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you boys, I was terrified. But I pressed on, and as I made my way past the breakers a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, but I tell you Jerry, at that moment I was a marine biologist."
- George, in "The Marine Biologist"

LOST IS BACK ON!!!!

Once again, I have fallen behind...
I have neglected our blog when I could have been filling it with pictures of our fabulous trip to Disneyland, our Christmas tree, Jake, Lucky, and the rest of the Torres Zoo. Yes, I feel like I am living in a zoo. Within three months, we went from 2 animals to 5. The fifth addition is a cute little puppy that happened to find us a few days before Christmas. While we were able to track down his owner, apparently, she is not interested in getting her dog back. Anyway, Rusty is his name and he is an out-of-control puppy. He needs a little work on a biting problem that I refer to as "shark attack," but he's getting better every day. It's probably a good thing I have a more managable school schedule this semester.




With a little more time on my hands, maybe it's time to work on a couple of New Year's resolutions:
Get Jake in the trailer without any complaints
Continue working with Lucky WITHOUT getting bucked off again (thanks, Lucky, for all the bruises that I was able to fully enjoy on Christmas Day)
I haven't actually asked David what his New Year's resolutions are, but I have a feeling that they might have something to do with his newly acquired motorized vehicles. A few weeks ago, our good friend Matt came over in the morning and he and David drove off in David's truck. I had a general idea of what was going on, and after they had left I was talking to mom on the phone. I informed her that "Mr. Haney had gone to work for the day" (she has been referring to David as "Mr. Haney from Green Acres" for as long as we have been married...haven't seen the show? Here is David's namesake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Haney Apparently, Matt and David tracked down some guy that was looking to give away two motorcycles. Between the two bikes, I think there might be enough parts to make one complete, functioning motorcycle.
So...David's resolutions that I have come up with:
Work on bikes without creating a giant pile of tools in the middle of the garage
Avoid burning down the garage in the process, or cutting off any limbs or digits. (So far, so good on both of those).
At any rate, David and I enjoyed some REAL winter weather here in Lubbock earlier this week, Lucky hasn't even acted like he wants to buck me off, and everyone is doing fine.







...A few pictures from the Disneyland trip...

As you can see, it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of Rusty because he wants to be right in the middle of everything. Maybe eventually I will be able to get a good shot...

Naptime at the Torres house...

This is an older picture of Lucky. I think this was from the first time we tightened up the cinch.

Here's David..."working" on his bike...

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Jerry: I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Watley. I have a suspicion that he has converted to Judaism purely for the jokes.
Priest: And this offends you as a Jewish person?
Jerry: No, it offends me as a comedian.

Jake Needed a Friend ...

So, Jake has been by himself for a couple of weeks now. When I originally brought him down here to Lubbock, there were 4 other horses in the next pen over, and they seemed to be keeping him company. Eventually, all those horses left...and Jake was left all by his lonesome. When I pulled in to feed one afternoon, and saw Jake running down the fenceline after a horsetrailer going down the highway, we decided that he really needed a friend.



Please meet Lucky!



He is the newest member of the Torres family, he's 20 months old, and he is an early Christmas present for both Jake and me. Jake was so excited when I pulled in with the trailer and Lucky gave a loud, yearling whinny, that he was acting about a quarter of his age.

Well, I'm probably as excited as Jake ... Lucky is a great horse and has a very nice temperament.


To: David
From: Jake and Becky ... Thanks for the wonderful early Christmas!




Jerry: Is he from the future?
Elaine: No, he just shaves his head, I think it’s pretty gutsy.
George: Listen, Sweetheart, let me tell you a little something about guts. This is guts.
Elaine: What? Clinging to some scraps?
George: These are not scraps, these are historic remains of a once great society of hair.

Wow...I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog. I guess the hospitalization of my compeer shook me up enough to shake me out of my program.




At any rate, life has actually slowed down a little bit since the summer, but is still busy. I am not working, but trying to keep up with my 6 classes, and David is working hard as always. In fact, he has spent the last week "cat hunting" in the warehouse (apparently the little critter snuck in once it started getting cold outside...no one told it that most of the warehouse is a refrigerator). So while I was at the College of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources scholarship banquet last night, David was wondering around the warehouse looking for a black cat. He ended the night with success, though it did result in him getting his finger bit. (I find this all very amusing).



Probably our biggest news (I think so anyway) is that Jake finally made the long trek to Lubbock, in a trailer that he was sure was not nearly big enough to ride 6 hours in. But we made it safe and sound, thanks to help from Dad and Mom, and David's awesome truck.

We found a great place for Jake to stay - just down the road - and I am looking forward to maybe taking some working cow horse or ranch horse classes at the equestrian center in the spring. It makes me so happy to have Jake here. I don't think David is quite as excited as I am, but he can't deny that he enjoys getting lessons on such an awesome horse!

"One never knows how the gastrointestinal workings of the equine are going to function."
- Kramer, in "The Rye"

Death Toll: 1.5

So... I managed to kill two computers within two weeks (my father once told me I had an aura about me that ruined electronics...never knew exactly what he meant until now). MY laptop went on the fritz right before classes started - screen would just go blank and computer would not turn back on. I sent it in to HP for repairs and they ...........replaced the speakers. Hmmm. I don't recall there being anything wrong with the speakers, maybe it's because my computer is muted 99% of the time (I sure am glad I have new speakers). At any rate, I had to send my laptop BACK to HP to get them to fix the real problem. Good news was, that while every other part on the computer failed the diagnostic test, the hard drive was safe. However, for the first two weeks of school, I was using David's old laptop as a stand-in. It is a six-year old Dell running Linux (the IT people at school just laughed at me). Just days before my HP was supposed to come back, the Dell's hard drive crashed (with 2 weeks worth of school notes...gone). It's as dead as a doornail. David was so nice about offering me his computer and I killed it. We went down to Best Buy on Labor Day and agonized over what to do, finally deciding to buy a new laptop. The next day, my HP came in, and so far it works fine. Oh well. Just keep me away from any laptop that is not under warranty.


"What is that?"
"It’s Risk, the game of world domination. It’s being played by two guys who can barely run their own lives."
-George and Jerry in The Label Maker (referring to Kramer and Newman)


NOTE: I probably shouldn't be allowed to play Risk either...

I am literally just an hour out of my last final for the summer semester. It feels pretty good... and that has nothing to do with how well I feel like I did... just glad to have it over and done with. Now it's time to start all those projects I had planned for the summer......dang it! It's August already!

David, on the other hand, will get busier every day. School is almost in session, and those elementary kids will be eating lots of food. David is so looking forward to the season of being to work by 6:30 a.m. (severe sarcasm here).

This week, David also embarked on the adventure of obtaining a Texas Drivers' License. And boy, was it an adventure. After about 7 trips to the department of public safety (apparently, there is no DMV in Texas) and about 27 forms of ID (maybe less), he is legal. His Nevada license had expired (long story, but it happened while we were waiting for his SS card to arrive - the 27th piece of ID) he had to take the written and driving test. Hahaha....he had to parallel park in his truck...hahaha.

By the way...we need to add a city to the list. The City of the Month will be...Tucumcari, NM?!? Really, David? How did you come up with that one? It must be Ute Lake, David is a sucker for lakes. Well, the City of the Month is open to any and all suggestions...we will look into it.

"It's crowded, the grass has big brown patches in it, they don't rake the sand traps. Not to mention the caliber of people you have to play with!"
- Kramer, disdainful of public golf courses, in "The Cheever Letters"

Ok....I am blogging tonight to do a bit of "tooting my own horn." I told David he needed to write this post and tell everyone how wonderful his wife is, but he said "It's your blog."

Last night we had an early birthday dinner for David with some friends, after which, I gave David his birthday present, and I am definitely proud of myself for this one.

Just two days ago, I found the perfect truck for David. After A LOT of scheming and fibbing to my husband, I pulled off the deal the next day. Our fantastic friends drove out to Levelland, TX to pick it up for me (side note.....LEVELLAND, TX.....you know it's flat when you live near a town called Levelland). They met us as the restaurant and Raquel and I rendezvoused in the restroom to hand off the key and wrap it up. After dinner, I handed the small birthday gift to David. When he opened it, his jaw dropped and he didn't say a word. I told him he had to go find the vehicle that his key opened out in the parking lot, which was an easy task once he discovered the panic button on the remote. It was all quite exciting and I love seeing him act like a little kid on Christmas morning. Now it's time to sell the old Maxima.

As for the specs.... it is a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 Laramie, Quad cab with a Cummins.

In all the excitement, I forgot to take pictures, even though I took our camera. I didn't remember until after we got to the Brown's house, so the pictures I have were taken after dark. Just look at the expression on David's face...and this is a couple of hours after he got it. Well, I gotta run. We are going to take the dogs on their first ride in the back of the truck.

Happy Birthday, David!!!!

"This Kruger guy is clueless. I can't wait to work for him."
- George, in "The Slicer"